PHOENIX – The San Francisco Giants stagger into Dodger Stadium on Monday. The Dodgers would like to land the knockout blow.

With a five-game lead in the National League West and just two weeks left in the regular season, a series win (or sweep) by the Dodgers could be that blow.

“Yeah, I do. I think everyone in there (the Dodgers’ clubhouse) sees that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “I think those guys see that their backs are against the wall. It’s a huge series for them. It’s a huge series for us. And we have an opportunity to be on the offensive and essentially put them away. And that’s our goal.”

If the Dodgers sense blood in the water, it was evident Saturday night.

Rookie Brock Stewart was talking to reporters at his locker following his win over the Arizona Diamondbacks when a loud cheer erupted from the other side of the clubhouse.

The St. Louis Cardinals had just tied their game with the Giants and a large group of Dodgers players were gathered around one of the TVs in the visitors clubhouse at Chase Field, watching with obvious interest.

“Was the Giants game on in the clubhouse?” Roberts said, feigning ignorance before cracking a smile. “I heard a little uproar. That was great.”

The Giants’ disastrous second-half tumble continued Sunday when the Cardinals shut them out, 3-0. Holders of the best record in baseball at the All-Star break, the Giants have the worst record in baseball since the break (22-37). The back-to-back losses this weekend ended a 2-5 homestand.

That has taken some of the shine off this week’s Dodgers-Giants series at Dodger Stadium. The two teams will play each other six times in the final two weeks of the regular season. But the sense of urgency might be very one-sided. The Giants now have to worry far more about losing their hold on a wild-card playoff spot and less about halting the Dodgers’ march to a fourth consecutive division title. The Giants hold just a one-game lead over the Cardinals for the NL’s second wild-card spot.

“I think for us obviously we’re in a better situation than we were yesterday,” Roberts said Sunday. “But I think for us we’ve still in that ‘gotta win today’ (mindset) and it’s still a big series. As long as there’s still games on the calendar, they’re still in it.”

The importance the Dodgers thought this series would have is evident in the way they handled Clayton Kershaw’s return from the DL. Roberts acknowledgedSunday that consideration was given to having Kershaw out of “rehab mode” and lined up to start the series opener.

He will match up with Giants ace Madison Bumgarner on Monday.—the one left-hander the Dodgers have been able to hit this season. Like his team, Bumgarner has been reeling through the second half. He is 4-3 with a 4.44 ERA in his past nine starts.

“They were the best team in baseball in the first half. I think everyone is surprised,” Kershaw said of the Giants’ second-half tumble.

Kershaw was on the DL and only an interested observer in late August when the Dodgers took two of three from the Giants at Dodger Stadium, the first of nine games between the rivals over the final 38 games of the season.

But Kershaw said he was no more anxious to get back into this playoff-race atmosphere than he was just to get back, period.

“I didn’t miss it any more than any other game,” he said. “Pitching against the Marlins or pitching against the Giants – it’s pitching and I missed pitching. When you’re on the DL, you just want to get back out there.”

ALSO

Roberts said LHP Scott Kazmir had a “developing blister” while throwing a simulated game in Oklahoma City on Sunday. He will rejoin the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Monday and be re-evaluated. … The Dodgers plan to activate left-hander Alex Wood for the Giants series. Wood has been out since the end of May after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Wood will be used as a reliever down the stretch. … The Dodgers are advising fans to arrive early if they attend any of the games on this week’s final homestand. Sellout crowds are expected as the Dodgers honor Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully as he wraps up his career.

Join the conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful
conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments,
we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful,
threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent
or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law,
regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.